Wolfgang E. Nagel has started the Center of High Performance Computing (ZHR) at Technische Universität Dresden in 1997.Today, he holds the Chair for Computer Architecture in the department Computer Engineering and is the director of the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH). He is chairman of the Gauß-Allianz e.V. (coordination of the HPC related activities in Germany), and member of the international Big Data and Extreme-scale Computing (BDEC) project. Since 2014, he is leading the national Big Data competence center “ScaDS– Competence Center for Scalable Data Services and Solutions Dresden/Leipzig”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Data intensive computing
The orientation of the ZIH on parallel and data intensive computing is based on its capable system for high performance computing and high performance storage. Its focus is on the development of new methods and algorithms for solving the growing challenges of science and research. Moreover, ZIH also covers important research challenges in data acquisition, handling, and exploitation of large data sets for a broad spectrum of users. Its endeavours to optimize the overall performance of applications closely respond to the critical demands of energy efficiency.
The increasing amounts of data from experiments, simulations, sensors, or documents – often referred to as “Big Data” – require methods to manage them, to quickly recover them, and to access them. Additionally, an analysis of their storage, a description of computer architectures, and data processing algorithms are required to efficiently obtain information from which useful information can be extracted.
ZIHs main topics of research in this field are:
1. Data-Life-Cycle Management – Strategies, methods, and tools for managing data throughout the entire life cycle, from creation to long-term archiving
2. Research Data Infrastructures – Infrastructures for the (distributed) collaborative management and exploitation of research data
3. Efficient Storage Infrastructures – Analysis and optimization of file systems, storage hardware, and applications
4. File System in Wide Area Networks – Management and analysis of geographically distributed computer networks
ScaDS Dresden/Leipzig
Within the funding program „competence centers for the intelligent use of Big Data”, the Federal Ministry for Education and Research funds the research project “ScaDS Dresden/Leipzig Competence Center for Scalable Data Services and Solutions”. ScaDS Dresden/Leipzig was officially launched on 13 October 2014 and has laid the foundations for the creation of a national competence center for Big Data. The competence center covers thematically important research challenges in data acquisition, handling and utilization of large data sets for a broad spectrum of users. It is driven by the partners Dresden University of Technology (TUD), the University of Leipzig (UL), the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), and the Leibniz-Institute for Ecological and Regional Development.
Links
* ZIH (http://tu-dresden.de/zih)
* ScaDS Dresden/Leipzig (https://www.scads.de/de/)